"Myanmar’s US$1.3 billion Kyaukphyu deep-sea port project, a China-backed scheme under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is one small step closer to realization. CITIC Group Corporation, the Chinese state firm leading the project, started this month a legally required environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) and preliminary geological survey, the first signs of on-the-ground progress for the mega-project. The moves come eight months after Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government inked a framework agreement with a CITIC-led consortium. The agreement fell short of, but paved the way for, an actual concession-granting deal. The CITIC-led consortium, comprised of four other Chinese enterprises and Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, aims to develop the port as part of a special economic zone (SEZ) in Myanmar’s conflict-ridden Rakhine state. Negotiations for the mega-project, green-lighted by previous president Thein Sein, stalled in the first two years of Suu Kyi’s government, either for reasons of red tape or lingering official unease over the scheme. When contacted by Asia Times, a CITIC representative declined to speculate on when the two parties would conclude the ongoing talks..."